Learning To Find My Way One Country, One Mistake and One Kindness At a Time

Day 4 – Sometimes the Wrong Turn Is the Better Story

After solving the mystery of the water heater, I thought I had officially mastered one of the greatest challenges my hotel room had to offer. The only mystery that remained unsolved was the kitchen light. The room was equipped with what felt like hundreds of switches. Some controlled the lights, some controlled the curtains, some controlled the air-conditioner, and apparently one even decided whether the fridge got to live or not. I never managed to figure out which one controlled the kitchen light. Fortunately, I had absolutely no intention of cooking, so I happily accepted defeat in my personal battle against the smartest hotel room I had ever encountered.

Having spent the previous days on the Hop-on Hop-off bus, I felt like I had a decent overview of the city. It was time to take the next step in my backpacking adventure and try Kuala Lumpur's public transport on my own.

My destination for the day was the famous Batu Caves.

For years, I had admired photos of the colourful staircase leading up to the temple inside the limestone caves, guarded by the enormous golden statue of Lord Murugan. Now I was finally going to see it all with my own eyes.

At the correct train station, I simply followed the large crowd of tourists who all seemed to be heading in the same direction. Technically, I had read beforehand that I was supposed to turn right after leaving the station. Unfortunately, herd mentality turned out to be stronger than common sense. Without giving it a second thought, I followed everyone else as they confidently turned left.

In hindsight, I probably should at least have become just a little suspicious when I suddenly found myself standing in front of a gigantic blue-green statue of a man with what looked to my like a dog's snout and a tail. But by that point I had already been standing in the queue for several minutes, so naturally I thought:

"Well... everyone else can't be wrong."

So I paid the entrance fee and stepped inside the cave.

What awaited me was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The cave seemed determined to burn itself permanently into my memory. Everywhere I looked, colourful neon lights illuminated countless statues and scenes from Hindu mythology in what I can only describe as full Bollywood style. Fascinated—and admittedly a little confused—I continued deeper and deeper into the cave until I eventually reached a steep staircase.

Curious to see what was waiting at the top, I followed an equally bewildered English family upwards. About halfway up, I almost tripped over my own feet when, completely without warning, an enormous artificial waterfall suddenly roared to life right next to me. Seconds earlier, everything had been relatively peaceful. Now, water came crashing down beside us under flashing coloured lights with a noise that nearly gave me a heart attack.

The Ramayana Cave was definitely not what I had expected to find that morning. Looking back, it turned out to be one of the places I remember most vividly from my time in Malaysia.

After leaving this surreal cave behind, I finally made my way towards the place I had actually come here to see. Luckily, finding it was not exactly a difficult task. The enormous golden statue was visible from far away, even through the trees.

For a while, I walked around the area, bought a bottle of water and sat down on some stairs to watch life around me: tourists rushing around trying to capture the perfect photo, kids chasing countless pigeons, vendors calling out to attract customers at the small shops and stalls, locals calmly going about their daily routines, and a group of monkeys that I would get to know a little better later.

Of course, I had not come all this way just to admire pigeons and monkeys. The enormous statue of Lord Murugan and the famous 272 colourful steps were even more impressive in real life than in any photo I had seen before. After drinking the last drops of water from my bottle, I finally began the ascent. Whether the pauses during my climb were mainly for photos or to catch my breath is still up for debate.

At the top, I was rewarded with a truly fascinating view: an impressive Hindu temple inside a 100-metre-high limestone cave. It was a completely different atmosphere compared to the Ramayana Cave. Here, I could actually feel the spiritual energy of the place and the devotion of the many worshippers who came here among the tourists. Once again, I found myself simply sitting back soaking up the atmosphere. I was fascinated by the rituals, the people, and especially the incredible vegetation growing in the open section at the back of the cave, where sunlight and rain could reach this unique little ecosystem.

Still in a daze, I suddenly had to laugh out loud when a completely unexpected visitor crossed my path: a chicken casually wandering through the cave. Apparently, I still looked trustworthy enough to become everyone's “vacation photographer”. Couples and families especially kept handing me their phones, and for reasons I still don't fully understand, this became a recurring theme throughout the rest of my journey. Eventually, I reached the point where I had to politely excuse myself from my new unofficial job and continue exploring.

During my descent, however, I encountered the chicken again. Somehow, this little chicken seemed completely at home among the crowds. It casually wandered around the cave as if this was the most normal place in the world.

Unlike the monkeys, which stayed outside and waited for easier targets, these intelligent little thieves were stealing all kinds of things from tourists who were already struggling enough with the stairs. Nothing seemed to be safe from them.

At the bottom, I managed to take one of my favourite photos of the entire trip: a macaque proudly sitting there with a child's ice cream. A man nearby, who had already been filming him, told me that the little thief had snatched it from a child moments earlier.

After walking and exploring for hours, I drifted off almost the moment my head touched the pillow back in my room. Or at least I tried to. Over the past few days, I had discovered another unique feature of my hotel: the nightly fireworks. Almost every evening, loud explosions from the street below woke me up just when I thought I had finally fallen asleep.

At first, I would lie there wondering what on earth was happening. By now, however, I had simply accepted it as another part of my Malaysian experience. Apparently, even my sleep schedule had decided to embrace the adventure.

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If you'd like to see some visual impressions of my journey (like the chicken or the monkey), you can find my photos and videos on Instagram. Just search for @lost_with_lynn.

Thanks for reading! I would really appreciate any feedback or corrections. If you would like to start from the beginning, you can find the previous parts of my journey here:

Day 0 - How a Dream Became Reality

Day 1 - How I Almost Ended My Trip on the Very First Day

Day 2/3 - A Hop-on Hop-stop Adventure

I hope you’ll join me again for another chapter of my journey.